@bradlekronson - I downloaded SquirrelJuice's file, but it was just a pdf. While he does have the full link in his document, it didn't try to auto download or install for me. I would suggest holding off downloading install files (and definitely not run them) unless you know they are from a trusted source. Since I've read his PDF, I'm going to disable the link to keep the confusion down. SquirrelJuice, feel free to repost the content of the pdf in a new reply, but please do not include direct links that might cause others to download and install applications they do not want.

I understand your frustration regarding third party software and I'll relay it along to the team. The fact is is that Adobe offsets the ongoing development costs of Flash Player, which is made available for free, by offering users the option to download select software of Adobe partners.

I deleted my post yesterday, because my screen captures had not been included when I saved the message, and I had not saved the pictures. However, since then I have been getting email updates every time someone posts. Therefore, I feel the necessity to say something about this issue.

The fact that you are missing Chris is that we are not clicking the download button on the adobe.com/flashplayer/update/plugin/ page. On my desktop I recieved the automatic update notice, and when I clicked the download button on that notification, I went driectly to the second link above, and windows opened it's dialog asking me whether or not to allow the program to run.

Now it is possible that the first web page also opened and was in the background, but I never saw it.

However, later I was on one of my co-workers computers and trying to help her get Flash Player. Having been through this earlier I was careful to watch what was happening and the same thing happened in that she went directly to the second link above. I stopped the download because I wanted to get screenshots, and then page reverted to the first link, as if it had been open in the background.

Clearly there is something wrong with the initial links or the launcher which is making it occur automatically, without being prompted. I would suggest that you start testing on more computers and different setups to try to find the reason some people are experiencing this issue, rather than assuming we all just missed the check box and clicked away uncaringly.

If I could get my PC to return to the state it was in Monday before I arrived at work, and then have the update notification return, I would show you that I did not have the opportunity to deny the McAfee download.

@FTK_flashdev - I'm very interested in what happened. Would you be willing to send me your browser history (or just the section around the time your updated)? Did you and your colleague both have the same OS and browser? I've never seen the first page automatically forward the user to the second, so I'll talk with the team to see if this was ever seen in testing.

If your up for it, I can help you get the system back in the state it was (at least with Flash Player) so we could do a reenactment over a desktop sharing session. If this is something you (or anyone else who's running into this) is willing to do, shoot me an email at ccampbel@adobe.com and I'll schedule something at your convenience.

@Chris thanks for editing my post (number 37) and removing the link to the pdf, I have also deleted the pdf file on my server. Like FTK_flashdev I could not upload screenshots into my mail, thus the only alternative was the file on my server. As you realise I was only utilising your link which you have edited out of your email.

@bradleykronson - my pdf was the proof that the first link from Chris DID install mcafee and was NOT a recommendation to repeat the proof.

@FTK_flashdev states QUOTE "The fact that you are missing Chris is that we are not clicking the download button on the adobe.com/flashplayer/update/plugin/ page. On my desktop I recieved the automatic update notice, and when I clicked the download button on that notification, I went driectly to the second link above, and windows opened it's dialog asking me whether or not to allow the program to run."UNQUOTE

This is the very same way that I (SquirelJuice) believe it happened to me...

As I have installed mcafee twice on this machine, I will be sending my email address to Chris to take advantage of his offer in message 42.

Can someone from Adobe please explain exactly how the McAfee software is critical to the fuctioning of Flash Player.

Making the rash assumption that it isn't actually either critical to the finction or even a part of some obscure optional functionality within Flash player, can Adobe please explain (and do so convincingly) exactly what the hell it is doing bundled with Flash player?

If it's something that is really so knee tremblingly good, why the hell aren't people queuing up, asking where they can get it purely on its own merit - Or is it actually so rubbish that it needs to be promoted in this way?

If Adobe insist that they really do want to bundle unrelated, unnecessary and largely unwanted applications with their product, can Adobe please explain exactly why its installation is enabled by default.

At the moment Adobe are behaving precisely like any other purveyor of malware: the product is completely unnecessary, irrelevant and almost universally unwanted and its installer defaults to making changes to the victims PC unkess the victim takes steps to avoid it. That is a malware action pure and simple. End of.

McAfee (and Google toolbar/Chrome) are not critical to the functioning of Flash Player. These are optional installs and we do state this on the download page.

I understand how you feel. I've passed this along to our team and will continue to do so. The fact is that these offers help offset the development costs for Flash Player (which is provided for free). I hear your request to make this an opt in, instead of opt out, offer and I'll also make that clear to the team.

If you've opted into our "Allow Adobe to install updates (recommended)" update mechanism, you will only receive this notification with major releases. You are not obligated to click the download button in the Flash Player update dialog. Dismissing the dialog will allow you to continue to use Flash Player as you have been. You will automatically and silently receive the Flash Player update after 30 days of it's release, or sooner if a "zero day" security update is made available. This silent update will not include any additional software nor prompt you to install third party software.

What's with automatically installing the McAfee crapware??!! I wasn't given an opportunity to opt-out, something I usually find annoying enough, but this time Adobe just went ahead and installed McAfee, no questions asked. What sort of BS thinking is that??! This is the kind of crap that makes me want to install FlashBlock and ask the sites I frequent to move to HTML5. Look, we all know times are tough, especially for a slow-moving behemoth like Adobe, but maybe you should try to *not* alienate your users. Heavy-handed moves like this do not endear you to anyone.

"McAfee (and Google toolbar/Chrome) are not critical to the functioning of Flash Player. These are optional installs and we do state this on the download page."

OK, fine. Why is the install of software that is a)irrelevant and b)unnecessary, enabled by default?

I would say that it is the install is default and it is the non-installation which is optional, but that's largely semantics.

If the McAfee and Google toolbar/Chrome are truly optional, why the blazes does Adobe have the brass neck to assume I will want to install bundled software that is irrelevant and unnecessary.

Surely, if McAfee and Google toolbar/Chrome are REALLY that good (And especially the McAffee toolber) then surely people would be seeking them out and downloading, on their own merits.

Onthe other hand, could it be that the software is largely crap and Adobe is getting a greasy back-hander if they manage to stiff a few poor saps with unwanted installations?

Malware is as malware does. Pure and simple. The Adobe installer is set to perform unnecessary, unwanted and irrelevant actions and to do so by default. That is malware. End of.

Please stop acting like a scummy malware pusher.

If you think assuming deploying irrelevant addons is OK, so long as the punter makes a specific action each and every time, how about this: Each time I contact Adobe I'll assume that Adobe are happy for me to park my car at their London offices for free, unless I have a specific reply to the contrary each time I make that assumption.

I just want to join in with the complaining. I have had to spend a LOT of time dealing with the havoc caused by the McAfee piggyback. FYI: I have W7 and the Flash update initiates without launching any web browser windows (I have checked my history). It shows up as a popup from the lower right corner. There was a couple of times where the popup included the McAfee checkbox, which I promptly unchecked, but this latest, fateful time, it did not. I agree with the previous poster, who stated that the default should be an opt-out, with the option of opting-in. I have never liked the McAfee suite, due to its negative interactions with legitimate software that I use, and I have chosen other malware protection for this reason.

McAfee indiscriminately disabled all the services on my computer that connect to the internet, so I could not get any program that require online license verification to work (many of the more expensive programs, such as AutoCAD and Adobe applications use this to prevent piracy). Of course, they do not tell you that this is the reason, when they refuse to launch. So I was sent down the rabbit hole of troubleshooting. Autodesk's suggested solution was to uninstall and reinstall!!! Fortunately, I finally found the fix on the Adobe website: enable all the disabled services using Windows' services.mcs. Anyway, where do I send the bill for lost time?

Furthermore, it disabled my online file backup! How is that supposed to be a security improvement?!?!

If you've opted into our "Allow Adobe to install updates (recommended)" update mechanism, you will only receive this notification with major releases. You are not obligated to click the download button in the Flash Player update dialog. Dismissing the dialog will allow you to continue to use Flash Player as you have been. You will automatically and silently receive the Flash Player update after 30 days of it's release, or sooner if a "zero day" security update is made available. This silent update will not include any additional software nor prompt you to install third party software.

It's like recommending people to use automatic updates and then telling them "No no no, don´t do that you should have known our automatic update suck!" Well, at least your right, it do suck!

OK, for those of us who are sick and tired of the nasty little scumware marketing antics of Adobe and McAfee, how do I turn off "Install Updates" in Adobe fllush player, or do I need to remove/reinstall (Assuming I can't find another product by someone else)

@AnotherAGladys - You can turn off notifications by going to the Flash Player control panel and selecting the advanced tab, then clicking "Never check for updates (not recommended)". However, I'd recommend leaving the "Allow Adobe to install updates (recommended)" selected, and then just ignore/close any Flash Player update notification you receive in the future. At least this way you'll silently get the update after 30 days and you'll also be covered for other zero day security issues.

Although it would be have been much, much nicer if Adobe didn't act like a malware pusher in the first flaming place >8-(

I'm coming to London this weekend so, in the absence of any reply contrary to my assumption in Post 48, I'll blithely assume that Adobe are happy for me to park my car at their London offices for free.

Wow! And just recently you guys did the same for google's stuff... Are you even serious? Either turn off the bundled crapware installation untill you fix the problems or just fix them and make sure they don't repeat. Especially not two updates in a row.

Yeah, it's actually pretty amazing that a company of Adobe's stature pushes this type of unnecessary and unwanted nonsense on its users. I know their reply: "Just un-check the box." Adobe, this is (as you full well know) complete rubbish, and totally counter to the public brand and persona I think you desire. If you think the default doesn't matter, then choose the "First, do no harm" default, and have the box un-checked by default. But you KNOW the default DOES matter, and it matters a lot (and it certainly matters to the people paying you to foist this nonsense on your user community). Either stop this immediately, or risk losing customers by the thousands.

Thank you, AGladys and others here, for these eloquent little catharses. I don't have time this morning to do my own fuming about sleazy sneak-it-past-the-dumb-schmucks practices like Adobe's McAfee scam, but I installed a Flash update a few minutes ago and got mad all over again. Adobe is a big company, right? It produces sophisticated software costing thousands of dollars, so that many would-be users, like me, can't afford to buy it whether it's industry-standard stuff or not, right? Hey, go capitalism. But why, oh why, does Adobe routinely add insult to that particular injury by trying to get me to unintentionally download problematic software I do not want? Do you think anyone at Adobe can keep a straight face when they say "Well, it's only a tiny little optional thing and we clearly warned you about it in little print up there somewhere," especially if they then get to propose the "I'd recommend leaving the 'Allow Adobe to install updates (recommended)' option checked" as a solution? Do actual human beings say that stuff? If so, do they sleep at night? Right, Adobe. You're perpetually trying to underhandedly do things to our computers that we don't like; we should give you complete control of update installations too and just shut up and be happy.

I think Adobe has become infected with whatever makes Microsoft insist so relentlessly that only Microsoft -- certainly not you! -- can properly manage your computer. Guess I'm fuming again here anyway. But shouldn't we be rising up or something?

I think it is just horrible that you sneak Mcafee, and yes, there is no opt out as I stopped the instalation and attempted to change the instalation three times. If there is an opt out, Adobe does a good job of hiding it. In the future, I will now strongly consider your competitiors for my software needs and give negative feedback to those who use your products. In short, have some class Adobe.

Today, I was notified to download the latest version of Flash. As usual, I was redirected to Adobe's website and I clicked on the download button. During the instalation process, I noticed that a version of Macaffe Scan was also installed on my computer. That's unacceptable. Period.

Adobe played the card of the "already checked box" in fine print, that's fine.

For the next flash update, I would that this forced installation of a software I don't want is disabled or at least, I would like to have the choice to not install Macaffe after downloading the .exe file. This kind of "sneak installation" feels like adobe is playing us.

I had the Adobe download presented to me today, instead of offering mcafee it offered to install the chrome search bar on internet explorer. I unticked this feature and was presented with the file install_flashplayer11x32axau_gtbd_chrd_dn_aih.exe which I downloaded and installed. As I deselected the offer I only installed adobe update only. mcafee was not installed as part of the base file. Thus my PC is still mcafee free as confirmed by the windows 'programs and features' viewer.

As each adobe update is offered to me I always check the options and then I check if mcafee is already on my PC and take screen shots of the downloaded file name to keep in control of what is being download (once bitten twice shy).

It looks like this is an issue that won’t go away. it just happened to my mac running fire fox. I got it from this link. //get3.adobe.com/flashplayer/download/?installer=Flash_Player_11_for_Mac_OS_X_10.6_-_10.8 &os=OSX&browser_type=Gecko&browser_dist=Firefox&type=au&browser_vers=19 I removed the https to disable the link but it takes you right to the down load page. Friends have had issues with fake adobe update sites so I did some research first before down loading.

If this IS one of those sites that bundles mcafee and your company supports this I have to say your company is going off a cliff. I have used mcafee and symantic products since the early 90's and I avoid them at all costs with many good reasons. This partnership will have Adobe on that list in weeks at this rate.

If you abuse your customers you are begging for a challenge from the open source market. A headache in competition I'm sure your company wouldn’t like.

This seems to me as if Adobe really doesn’t care about the time it or its collaborators wastes of it users. If you look at the number of hours of grief this has caused your users in this thread alone you wouldn't be trying to explain how we messed up by not clicking a specifically hidden option box and STOP using this practice.

I have managed a call center dealing with customer service issues and over all your skills with communicating with upset customers is quite good but if I may offer a bit of advice to remember:

"the customer is not always right but they are always the customer"

It seems your customers have a legitimate issue and that Adboe has no plans to stop people using this practice in their name. This is disgraceful.

Only because I don’t trust Adobe did this not burn me. Please think about the ramifications of losing your customers trust it wont be long before you lost them completely. If you don’t address this core issue of the trustworthiness of your down loads you will not last much longer and that would be a shame.

My one regret, AnotherAGladys, is that I have but one Yes vote to give you on the Was This Helpful question. You have justifiably excoriated Adobe over this issue with such precision that there is little left to say about it, but I would still encourage people to speak up about how ANGRY they are about this until Adobe finally gets the message that infuriating customers for a few bucks slung their way from McAlware is not a reasonable trade for their long term survival.

I just received a prompt to update Flash Player. Now I recall that in days of yore you were notified when an update was available (which it was oh so very often with the unstable bugfest that is Flash Player), you would select the option to update it if you wanted to, and you're away. (I always rejected the "give us the keys to your system and let us do things in the background that you don't know about" option.) But with this one I have to save an install file to do it. That's AFTER I'm asked about installing the McAffee cr@pware, which is on by default. Why the difference? I suppose that the "Yes, yes, yes, I want the McAlware product that I voted with my wallet against using to be installed on my PC in the hope that it will stuff up my existing anti-virus software" dialog is part of it.

Of course Adobe isn't the only one pulling this, Oracle and its magical viral Java machine (which I'd turn off completely if it were not for a couple of essential programs that I use needing it) does exactly the same thing every time it does an update (even more frequently than Flash Player and for the same reason) as well. I have no idea how much McAlware is paying these guys, but as I said, angering the user base for a few bucks is hardly a good move strategically.

I used to really like Adobe as a company, but between the unconscionable rip-off in Australian software pricing, the disgusting change to their upgrade policy which now reads "buy every version or else", and now the attempt to flick some bloatware that I don't like, need or want onto my system in the event that I'm not paying attention, Adobe is really, really getting up my nose.

I understand how you feel. I've passed this along to our team and will continue to do so. The fact is that these offers help offset the development costs for Flash Player (which is provided for free).

I've seen you write this a couple of times now, and while on the one hand I do appreciate the presence of an official Adobe voice in the forums and don't want to slam you since your presence here is great, I would have to say that I was singularly unimpressed by that argument itself. It almost sounds like Adobe is doing people a favour by releasing Flash Player for free.

Fact: If you didn't release Flash Player for free, hardly anybody would want it and even fewer would buy it. The installed base of Flash Player would be as close to zero as makes no odds. The number of websites that would deploy Flash would therefore be close to zero, and consequently... your sales of the Adobe Flash development tool would also be zero.

Or they would be, were it not that your CS package licencing is so utterly inflexible that we keep getting junk that we don't want just to try to reduce the total cost of purchase on the items that we do want. When I say "junk" I include both "software that is probably OK but which I have neither the interest nor time to invest in its learning curve" such as Adobe Flash, and unmittigated wastes of disk space like the late and very unlamented Adobe Contributor, the purpose of which I was never able to successfully fathom unless it was to clutter our Office toolbars with buttons and menus which had no discernable usefulness.

"You want PhotoShop and RoboHelp? Well let's see, you can buy them seperately for $xtortionate plus $xtortionate+, or you can buy them in a CS package with Fireworks and Flash and a whole bunch of cr@p that you don't need or want for somewhat less than $xtortionate plus $xtortionate+."

"Hang on, why can't I make a package consisting of only the tools that I want?"

"Noooo, we don't do it that way. By the way, we no longer let you switch your upgrade path between single apps and packaged apps either."

"That's nice of you."

"At Adobe, we like to feel that we have a true partnership with our users. Our hand, in your pocket. Forever. By the way, want to buy a subscription service instead of outright?"

So yes, on that basis I concede that you would still sell some copies of Adobe Flash even if Flash Player was not free, but not that many, and not by design. (And I do fully understand your strategy there which is the hope that today's disk clutter might be something that users try and like tomorrow, but it still gives me the screaming irrits that outside of the Master collection (which I am not paying the obscene Australian price for) I can't get a single package which covers only the applications that I actually want.)

If you're installing a critical security update on your computer, caused by the software vendor's sloppy code quality, you probably wouldn't dream that your software vendor is trying to make some money out of the inconvenience.

The fact that Adobe sees Flash Player as a cost centre rather than what it really is (which is a necessary driver for a profit centre, specifically sales of Adobe Flash as described above) is well and truly reflected in the number of updates that we get lumbered with because Adobe can't be bothered putting the resources into the thing to prevent it needing updates so frequently in the first place.

So believe me, we know it's free. The price shines through in the code quality, every single day. ("Flash Player has crashed! Again! Send crash report!" "It's Tuesday afternoon, time for yet another a Flash Player update to fix more bugs/vulnerabilities that weren't coded correctly in the first place!", etcetera.) It's just an obscenity that Adobe is trying to turn a buck from this sloppiness by trying to sneak unwanted third party software onto our desktop when we do an upgrade. I actually wouldn't care if it was "opt in" but having an "opt out" system means that there will be people who are just so sick of constant updates from code sloppiness that they keep clicking [Next], or who don't understand what is actually on offer, or who are distracted for a moment and bang, it's on their computer and there's another few pieces of silver for Adobe. It's ethically and morally wrong. We know it, Adobe knows it (but will never admit it) and even McAlware probably knows it.

I am very familiar with the usual "opt-out" window that lets me un-check one or more boxes. Today, however, while updating Flash Player, I did not get that opportunity to opt out. The first mention of anything else was when I looked at the little window with the Player installation progress bar and saw a second such bar for McAfee "Security Scan Plus". There was no way to terminate that install process. I had to wait for it to finish, then go into my programs menu and use McAfee's own uninstaller. (Which is not exactly confidence-inspiring, given their loooong history of tough-to-uninstall products!)

That's disgusting. When I tried to update this morning I didn't see any option to enable or disable mcafee installation this time. I didn't noticed until I saw how the download was progressing including mcafee, with no button to cancel it, and get installed without even asking for permission.

When you click the "update now" button it gives you this download file:

As the instructions on the follow page say, I double click the EXE file and it begins installation. It does the Adobe installation bar on the pop-up and right below that it does the Mcafee installaion bar. I stopped the process and went back because I am used to the opt out radio button being somewhere, but I could not find it in the process.

I just went through with it and removed the Mcafee program after everything finished installing. It was only an additional five minutes, maybe. I have exerted more time and effort on this post then deleting the offending program.

I am sure it is just a mild glitch, or at worse Mcafee being invasive on their part in some way. Anyhoo, hope it gets fixed as it is kind of annoying and a bit shady.